SEATTLE — Bundled in layers to fend off chills, Ron Morgan snagged a section of coveted downtown sidewalk space and began hawking his only product.
"Real Change," he calls out, holding up the weekly street newspaper by that name. Homeless and low-income people push it on streetcorners, pocketing 65 cents per copy.
"I detest panhandlers. I am not panhandling. I'm working," said Morgan, who has been selling copies for three years since an injury left him disabled. "It's a good paper. People like it. I'm not begging, OK?"
Some cities beg to disagree.
Fortified with broad anti-panhandling ordinances, they have begun prohibiting street vending of all sorts -- including, in some communities, the publication geared toward homeless issues that is sold on the street.
Frustrated by people aggressively asking for handouts, cities from Boston to Honolulu have toughened anti-panhandling ordinances and stepped up enforcement. Some have made slight modifications, others have adopted sweeping rules.
Last year, Tacoma, Wash., banned all soliciting from dusk to dawn. It prohibits asking for handouts within 15 feet of many common areas: bus stops, ATMs, pay phones, self-service carwashes and gas pumps. Soliciting isn't allowed at intersections and freeway ramps, or anywhere on private property without the owners' permission. And it forbids approaching people for money as they enter or exit vehicles. The penalty is up to 90 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.
Since the strengthened ordinance was adopted in April, police say they have mostly been issuing warnings; city officials say it has brought about a notable decline in panhandling.
Next month, in Federal Way, south of Seattle, the City Council is scheduled to vote on revisions to its regulations based on those adopted in Tacoma.
As Real Change, a nonprofit activist publication based in Seattle, expands, its distribution model has come up against anti-panhandling laws in some surrounding cities. Timothy Harris, executive director of Real Change, said one of its vendors in Tacoma and one in Auburn were told by police to stop selling the paper. Neither was arrested.
Tacoma's ordinance draws no distinction between a vagabond beggar, a Salvation Army bellringer, a Girl Scout cookie seller or a newspaper vendor, said Kim Gerhardt, the assistant city attorney who drafted the law. "The ordinance is absolutely blind," Gerhardt said. "If it's in a public place, it would be subject to the ordinance."
